Chapter 5: Hope in the Dismal Science: A Race-Centered Redirection of Economics Curriculum

This chapter draws on the theoretical framework of critical race theory (CRT), Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge (RPCK), and white social studies (WSS) to analyze economics standards for areas where race can be excavated by teachers wishing to explore race within a course whose proscribed standards ignore its myriad effects on the economy. After situating the absence of attention to race and economics within the larger landscape of social studies literature that attends to race, the authors find that CRT tenets are readily evident under the surface of the standards and provide suggestions for topics that address racial issues. CRT tenets can be explored by teachers with the RPCK necessary to excavate the standards and implement a humanizing economics pedagogy.